‘Can you hear me now?’

‘Can you hear me now?’

Installation of county’s new phone system underway

news@theeveningtimes.com

Wiring for the new phone system that will save Crittenden County thousands of dollars a month on its bill has begun.

The county approved spending $78,000 for a ShorTel system through AT& T and $124,000 to rewire each room in the courthouse, circuit court judge’s office, and county office building.

“The Quorum Court approved it last December and they’ve already gotten started,” County Judge Woody Wheeless said.

“They are installing the fiber optic cable as we speak.”

ShorTel is an IP Voice Over office phone system that provides basic call features such as call blocking, caller ID, call transfers, voicemail, phone alerts for missed calls, video conferencing, chat, and customized voice mail settings.

The service is provided over a single Internet connection and can also be accessed remotely from any computer, land-line, or mobile device. Wheeless said the new phone system will reduce the county’s phone bill by several thousand dollars a month.

The county is currently paying $4,400 a month for phone service.

“We’ll be going from about $5,000 a month down to $1,300 by doing this,” Wheeless said.

The county will finance the $78,000 cost of the phones over five years. And even with the financing, Wheeless said the county’s phone costs will drop $1,653 to $2,747 a month — or $19,800 a year. Once the phones are paid for, the bill will drop to $1,221 a month.

The phone system is the same one currently being used by the Sheriff’s Department. The county spent $46,600 for new phones for the Sheriff’s Department which lowered its phone bill from $4,851 a month to $3,510 a month.

Wheeless said it will take about two to three months to install the new system before it is up and running.

“They’re having to run drops through every office,” Wheeless said. “We had to create an IT room.

So it’s a pretty big deal for this Voice Over IT system.” Wheeless said the county could also see additional savings as well by dropping its Internet provider.

“We believe that we will officially be able to get rid of all our Comcast Internet service too and strictly use them (AT& T) for all of it, which will be an even bigger savings from what we thought we would get,” Wheeless said.

By Mark Randall